Senseless
by chaoticlawful
Summary: Dennis has an eating disorder. Charlie attempts to help. CW for eating disorders as well as...for IASIP. I'll let you know if anything else pops up.
1. Chapter 1

Dennis is on a diet.

Not the one where he doesn't eat for three days then passes the fuck out, mind. (_Sometimes_ he does that, but not often enough for it to be relevant.) It's the one wherein the fridge is stocked with low-fat, low-calorie food. (Of course, he still has to throw some out, as he discovers he feels guilty if he gets through it all.) It's the one where he declines to get involved in whatever crazy scheme The Gang are getting involved in right this minute, just to go walking for hours and hours until his feet burn; his toes turn numb.

It's the one where he's better than everyone else because Mac stuffs his face nonstop, and _Charlie_ must be consuming millions of calories via whatever cat-food-mouthwash concoction he's ingesting now. (Although, Dennis checked Google, and he has not been able to confirm that there are _any _calories in sniffing glue.)

It's one of those rare days that Dennis stays in the bar with The Gang during the day for whatever weird shit they're all about to stir up. Frank's fucking a whore in his and Charlie's shared apartment, Mac's doing some Project Badass shoots, and Dee's going to class for that acting career that will obviously never happen, which leaves Dennis alone with Charlie. This was kind of a shit day to choose not to go and exercise, but he did some bodyweight shit earlier today - push-ups and that, not that he can do them - and it's not _enough_ but he kind of feels like death boiled over and he doesn't really want to pass out again.

Besides, Charlie can be fun. Sometimes.

'Don't eat that, dude! What the hell?' Charlie exclaims, with terror in his eyes.

Dennis stops breathing for a split second; bites the inside of his lip.

'What do you mean, man?' Dennis questions, shakily.

_Fuck. _

Charlie frowns. 'It's green, dude. Apples aren't meant to be green. When things that aren't meant to be green are green, it means they're toxic. You could've died, man!'

Dennis sighs. 'Yeah, well. I'm trying to diet, so it's probably best that I don't snack too much.'

Charlie pauses. 'You look kinda diabetic, bro.'

Dennis scoffs. 'My body was chiseled by the Greek Gods. They added plenty of insulin.'

'No, not that.' Charlie sighs. 'Dude, it's...it's not the insulin one.'

'Okay? What is it then, buddy?' Sometimes Dennis _can _be gentle. Sometimes.

'It's like...it's not. It's not an alcoholic.' Charlie pauses. 'We're all alcoholics, but that's not it.'

The room is silent for a few seconds.

'Dude. It's the one where you starve yourself.'

It doesn't take long for Dennis to burst.

'A of all, how did you mix up _anorexic _with _diabetic _and _alcoholic_? You really are a _moron._ B of all, I don't have an eating disorder. Eating disorders are for those senseless women and men who attempt to transcend their mortal plane but cannot, cannot project themselves beyond their corporeal form, senseless, morons, idiots, morons, senseless…'

Dennis inhales sharply, cutting his furious rant short. He realises he has to lean against the counter, and he hopes to hell that Charlie doesn't notice.

'Dude. It's obvious. Remember that time you passed out after you didn't eat for three days? And Cricket teabagged you?' Charlie chuckles, mostly to himself. 'That was pretty fuckin' funny.'

'Wasn't funny to _me._' Dennis mumbles.

'Also, you're leaning against the counter right now, Dennis. You look like a zombie or something.'

'I do _not!_'

'And it's obvious you've been losing weight, Dennis.'

'I'm not sure whether to thank you for the compliment or not right now.' Dennis jokes, with an acidic lump of anxiety and hunger burning a hole in his chest.

'Dude. _Don't._'

As soon as everyone's back, Charlie insists that he has an announcement to make.

_It's not like Dennis really ever trusted Charlie with much, but damn._

'Are you coming out as _gay_?' Dee snarked.

'No. No more interruptions.' Charlie takes a breath. 'Dennis is _diabetic_.'

'No, no, no. He's my brother.' Dee rolls her eyes. 'I've known him for years. He's never had any of those symptoms. Apart from the weight loss, because he's an insecure teenage girl.'

'No!' Charlie is shaking with rage. 'Fuck, Dee, that's what I'm trying to tell you! It's the other thing! The one where you starve yourself! I can't say it right!'

'Okay, I'm leaving.' Dennis storms off, his entire body shaking, his whole body made of knots and acid. He's terrified, but naturally, he can never show that. So he can't. He _can't _be around for this bullshit conversation they're about to have. It's all lies, anyway, he decides.

'Yeah, no shit.' Dee replies.

'We knew.' Mac seconds.

'He's been both an anorexic and a crackhead before, and I'd rather he be an anorexic.'

'What the fuck, Frank?' Charlie questions. 'No, actually. What the fuck, Mac? You're obsessed with Dennis. We can all see it. We can _all _see it. But the funny thing is. The _hilarious _thing is. You don't even care about him. And you, Dee. You, with your acting and being a bird and shit. Let me tell you something. If you've lived with someone your _whole goddamn life_, you should care about them, too. But he's not your brother, is he? And you're not his sister, are you? You're just each other's little _fucktoys _that just ever so happen to be related!'

Dee snorts. 'Are you into incest porn now, Charlie?'

'Dennis _is _a bastard man, but he doesn't. _Nobody deserves this shit._'

Charlie runs off, in an attempt to find Dennis, and he doesn't really care what the others are talking about at the moment because there's no way in hell it could matter as much as this. Dennis can be a massive dick, but, in the end, Charlie works with messy stuff. Dirty stuff. And he fixes it. And he is so, _so _desperate to see Dennis safe.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlie is confused. But he's not _just_ confused. Being confused is an everyday occurence for Charlie. He's confused from the moment he wakes up to the moment he falls asleep in a haze of glue and other chemicals that make his brain go _boop boop _long enough for him to forget what he needs to forget. Charlie's not _just _confused...he's scared. No, Charlie's not just scared. He's angry. No, Charlie not just...he's not just angry. He's a bit more than angry, but he can't find the word for a bit more than angry. Maybe the word is sad. Yeah, Charlie's sad. Dennis must be pretty sad, too.

And, so. Charlie. He finds Dennis. And Dennis is there. But he isn't there. And Dennis is angry. Very angry. But he's more...what's the word for being angry but not being all _I AM THE GOLDEN GOD _about it? Charlie doesn't know. Maybe the word is sad. Or angry-sad. Something like that. 

'What the _fuck_, Charlie?' Dennis questions.

And, so. Charlie answers. 'Dennis...I'm trying to _help_, dude.'

'Well, you're not helping.' His arms are all limp, but his eyes are all hard. Charlie doesn't know what that means.

'Dude, I don't get this, anyway. Why'd you have to be like that, anyway?'

'Your strong tendency towards repetition is making my eyes spasm.'

'Nah, dude, that'll be the mal-magician.'

'Jesus.' Dennis sighs. 'You really are hopeless.'

'Nah, dude. I'm not. I'm your buddy and I'm sad-angry about you.'

'Well, Charlie, I'm not sad-angry about you, I'm just angry about you.' Dennis pauses. 'And anyway, you shouldn't be using the word _about _in that context. _Towards _you would be the gramatically correct way of saying it.'

'Dude, whatever. I just wanna see you being okay. Even if that means Cricket can't teabag you anymore.'

'Cricket has too many missing teeth to teabag me now.'

'I'm not sure the teeth are the problem, dude. But, uh, whatever, man. Get some help.'

'Speak for yourself.'

'I'm not the one who's diabetic, bro.'

-

And, so. Life kinda just falls forwards. Charlie doesn't really get it. Charlie kinda has some ideas, though, as he's eating dog food and looking out the window. Dennis is a mean man, that's true. But Dennis is a tight man, too. Tight. How else to describe...like, he thinks about it when he does a lot of things. He doesn't really think about other people's feelings, but he thinks about other things when he does things and he thinks about them a lot. He thinks about the way people look at him. Not, like, whether they use real eyeballs or electronic eyeballs to look at him, but whether they kinda think about him as a cool guy or not. Which Charlie finds weird, 'cause he's never done that. Well, he does that when people think of him as being stupid, 'cause he doesn't like that, but he doesn't pay too much attention to anything else. Why is it called paying attention, anyway? Paying is like with money, and you don't need money to pay someone attention. It's really, really, weird. So is Dennis.

And, so. With Dennis thinking about a lot of things, he probably kind of thinks that if he's like all apathetic or whatever, whatever that stupid fucking word was, he'll be like...the coolest guy. Which is stupid, because Charlie doesn't think it's that cool. Then again, Charlie isn't a cool guy. So, whatever. Anyway, Charlie doesn't like what Dennis is doing at all. He could like...get that thing where there's not enough of that rusty stuff in you and you start to die a bit. He probably has that thing already.

That's not good. That's not good at all.


End file.
